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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Dried Plantains...with Pics!

Moved to potatohack.com!

8 plantains resulted in 600g of dry matter, or approximately 75g each. Assuming a 55% RS content, each plantain yields approximately 45g of RS2. If you made them into eight 'crackers', each one will have about 5-6g of RS. It's really easy to eat four, lol:

42 comments:

Tim, thanks for reminding me. I bought a hydrator a while back and never used it. I shall definitely give it a go.

My way of peeling a plantain, is to make four slits down the side of the banana, then cut the top and tail off. And use a thumbnail to peel them. The peel comes off to the next slit in the banana. It gives me a better grip on the whole banana for my old hands.....

I have learned (the hard way) that you can only peel a plantain by hand (without a knife) if you never put it in the fridge. Then, it's not so bad. I'm able to do it with just one slit down and the two ends cut off.

The distinction between bananas and plantains has to do with their scientific name, and what we call bananas, are technically called "dessert bananas" as they are bred for high sugar. There are hundreds of banana and plantain breeds. Only a few are commercial successes, others bruise easily or ripen too fast/not at all. I have a feeling that soon banana breeders will be looking at ways to get the most RS out of a banana.

re: tapioca. Tough question. The research papers indicate that tapioca flour/starch should be about 50-60% RS, but people who've tried it say that it does not make their bowels behave any differently and it spike blood sugar like table sugar.

I think it has to do with manufacturing processes and cassava species. Just like bananas, there are bunches of different cassava species that tapioca is made from. Some sweet, some starchy. Until you can buy tapioca starch that is labeled with its RS content, I have to recommend a pass.

You could always test it by checking blood glucose after eating a couple spoonfuls, but no guarantee of consistency.

Do the dried plantains taste better/different than plain ole raw green plantains? Because I just couldn't get those down. And I enjoy the taste of baked green plantain. No RS of course after 30 mins at 325, but really nice mixed with leafy greens and a little apple cider vinegar.

When dried they taste NOTHING like when first peeled. They remind me of communion wafers or Pilot Bread. If anyone has had military MRE crackers, same taste and texture.

No one will eat these and say 'WOW, THAT'S GOOD!' but you will say 'hmmm, not bad.'

I like to keep a ziplock baggy full on the counter and grab one as I head to work, or when i want something just to chew on in the evening. You can salt them when they are wet and it will dry into the plantain, or even sprinkle with cinnamon for a Graham Cracker like taste. But mostly, I just leave plain.

That bitter astringent taste when they are wet, I believe. is from the latex they contain. Which brings up another point:

People with latex allergies need not apply.

Of course, if you have a latex allergy, you already know to stay away from bananas and other latex sources.

When you start cutting green plantains, you will see a liquid oozing out of the peel. It makes the counter a sticky mess and gets on your hands and knife. Keep a wet rag nearby to clean up the mess as you go.

I think that the latex disperses as they dry. If you take a nibble as they dry, you can noticeably tell they are becoming more palatable the dryer they get.

If you want to get really crazy, slice them paper thin with a mandolin and after they are dry, toss with a bit of olive oil and seasalt. Best 'potato chips' ever! Your kids will even like them.

Thanks for sharing your techniques! I know you've talked about it before, but the pics really help :) - following you from your debut on FTA, so I've have seen some of these before, but the last 3 add good info.

It probably depends on the humidity of your house. It is is very dry, 25-30% humidity, then maybe OK. 50% or more and it will probably not work.

I tried just setting on the counter when I first started, and they took many days to dry and turned brown. If you dry them very fast with a fan in a really warm place or in the sun, they stay nice a white and get crispy.

You can do it in an oven, but you have to be extra careful the temp does not rise above 130F or the RS will cook out.

Maybe there is a taste-bud 'thing' going on. Some people think celery and cilantro are the worst tasting foods on the planet. ( http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/why-hating-cilantro-and-other-flavors-may-be-genetic ).

I also eat 100% dark baker's chocolate that hardly anyone else can stand to eat. I love it.

But, generally, with the dried plantains, I don't really notice any taste at all. Just a very bland, crunchy, crackery texture. Nothing I would call 'gross'.

We had some house guests recently. They tried my dried plantains and both liked them. At least they said they did and nearly emptied the bag. We were eating them with smoked salmon and moose summer sausage toppings, tho.

similar to what Brad suggests, spreading coconut oil on the plantains and then sprinkling with shredded unsweetened coconut and raw cocoa powder then chilling might be good. I do this for my daughter, but with greenish bananas and then freezing them.

My daughter and I also love 100% unsweetened chocolate bars. She really loves 87% stuff. Our favorite is the Taza stone-ground bars. They have a really interesting and addictive texture. She'll ask "Can I have 87% chocolate for dessert?" Not tonight, you had dessert for lunch. "Ok, is 100% ok?" As a treat, I'll slip in 87% as a surprise treat in her lunch.

The pictures and explanation made this all very accessible for someone like me who has been spoiled by cooking blogs and websites. Thanks so much. I have a gas stove with a real pilot light, i.e., no electronics. It stays on very low all the time which means my oven is about 100-120 degrees all the time. I use that for drying so it should work well with the plantains.

They look like normal bananas to me. The plantains here in Brazil look much different... 2 to 3 times larger and more pointed on the end. Their flavor even when ripe is nothing like regular bananas. They are not very tasty but I imagine would be fine when dried. I need to try it. Will take a pic of them next time at the store.

These are now a staple for me. When I find them in a store I will get about twenty at a time and do a batch on my eight tray Nesco dehydrator set on the lowest temperature (95f) for about 36 hours. When clerks ask what am I going to do with all those plantains I give them the recipe with the gut health punchline, "If you don't feed your gut bugs, they'll feed on you." With a smile, of course...

Some people wear gloves when peeling green bananas/plantains. I prefer a small dab of olive oil on my hands that way when I peel the green bananas my hands do not get stained. When I buy green bananas I come home and slice them in my food processor and freeze them. When I make a smoothly I add about a half cup of frozen green banana. Works for me.

I have taken raw green plantains and pureed them with a bit of water. I then let it sit in a loosely covered bowl a couple days to ferment. (as you would for dosas) Then, added coconut oil (liquified), salt and some seasonings (best was chives). I spooned it onto dehydrator trays and dried it. It made some tasty crackers. The coconut oil prevented it from becoming chalky. I figured it had a good bit of RS, but never knew for sure. However, based on this article, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22860595 , concluded that the fermenting bacteria did not eat up the RS. So you now have a tasty (the fermentation adds flavor) RS and possibly probiotic cracker. And the best part, if you do the same, but omit the salt and add chocolate chips, you get a very tasty soft cookie. But once I can eat RS again, I will try this, which is much faster/less work.

I have a dehydrator now, pureeing and drying as a cracker is now on my 'to-do' list, sounds excellent, and a good way to get some flavor in them. I'm thinking sesame seeds, flax seed, and chocolate, lol.

I do not think the RS would be impacted much in the fermentation process, if at all. It takes some very specialized bacteria found in the gut to eat RS.

Potatoes tend to turn black and get hard, but you could try. I have not found a way to do it. Frying, as in potato chips/crisps, produces a bit of RS, but nowhere near as much as they would have if dried without heat. Plus, you get all that oil.

Dried food can be stored indefinitely, but depends on local conditions more than anything, ie. humidity, temperature, moisture content of dried food. I have had dried plantains in a ziplock bag on my counter that lasted for months (I lost them under a pile of oatmeal bags, lol).

Dried foods are just like opened boxes of cereal, eventually they get stale or go bad.

If you don't have a problem with wheat, try Dave's Killer Bread. Each 50g slice has 6g of "fiber" and I suspect also 5-10g of RS, especially if you toast it. You can find this in your local stores, maybe, I just provided the link so you can see. Lots of other varieties as well, all similarly good. I eat a couple slices a week.

If wheat is out for you, try using corn tortillas. Either make your own with Masa Harina or buy some that have a very short ingredient list. Corn tortillas, which are cooked and cooled meal, should each have 5-10g of RS. Taco shells, too.

I have a questen about banana what kind of resistant starch in banana? Resistant starch is not the same as FOS? and Inulin is one kind of FOS? Is it possible that banana have both resistant starch and inulin if thouse two is not the same.

My idea was banana is good fruit to start with it has the right combonation and in smaller amount depeding how green it is. Have you heard about a grain(gluten free) call Teff? What I read about it has up too 40% resistant starch.

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This is the blog of Tim Steele. I live in North Pole, Alaska...a small town near Fairbanks and just a stone's throw from the Arctic Circle. I've spent the last several years toying with and talking about numerous health interventions such as:

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